I am having an ongoing disagreement with two kiters. They say its possible to "down the line" wave ride on a kite. If so what type of wind directions are most suitable. How can you bust an off the lip on a kite that is 20' in front of you? How can you watch what the wave is doing when your watching a bag of trash (kite) and your lines buzzing around?

I both wavesail and kite and there is no question of can you do it. Windsurfing allows radical top and bottom turns, exciting off the lips and radical cutbacks. With a modern bow kite and a surfboard you can completely shut off the power of the kite for pure surfing with the added stability of the kite and turn the back of the kite back on again for radical air. In side-off conditions like San Carlos kitesurfing is so fast,light and exciting it's almost better than sex.

The main difference is how little wind you need for kiting and how much better windsurfing is when it's blowing 4.5 conditions.

I've sailed head-high Carlos a number of times while it was too light for the kiters. Maybe it was the kitemare to fish-camp for two of their buddies that put them off. Carlos is so smooth and so side-off you can squeak out in minimal wind on a floaty wave-board, and still be powered down the line.
Not to sound like a kiter-hater but the awful reality of sailing Carlos when more than 2-3 kites are present is that it generally sucks. With few notable exceptions ( e.g. Kevin) , they have no qualms about powering upwind of you and taking every wave they can - that's just human nature of course - but don't expect windsurfers to like it and want to hug and make up afterwards.

I sail at Wadell (northern California coast), I have for about 18 years, 13 of them on a windsurfer and the rest on a kite. Windsurfing is fun, but I can say from direct experience, comparing one against the other in the surf, there is no comparison. Not even close. Just look at the boards. Small wave board (windsurfing) is what dimensions? My last windsurf wave board was 8'-4" x 20.5" (I am 200+ pounds and was a decent wave-sailor). My current directional kite-surf board is 5'-0" x 15" (It is a mini thruster surfboard with straps). You cannot imagine where you can put the thing in the critical parts of the wave compared to a windsurfer. And when you get good on a kite, you don't even have to think where the kite is. It is so much more controllable and fun to kite-surf in surf than the alternative. Windsurfing is more fun than kiting though when the wind is crazy-gusty and more than 35kts. You can kite in those conditions, the wave riding just isn't that fun.. When the surf is 6-15ft faces and the wind is 15-25kts (side,side-off,onshore,whatever..) however, kiting is ideal. It would be fun to jump (temporarily) on a windsurfer after all these years but I can say that I have had no desire to go back to it, especially when I am in the surf (or flat water). There is a reason 99% of all the good windsurfers where I live jumped ship and never looked back.

I assure you, they were the best windsurfers (wave-sailors) in this area.. Now, pretty much all kiting 100% of the time. You used to pull up to the beach and there would be 20-30 sails on the beach or in the water. Now on an average day there are (maybe) 5 guys out on windsurfers at Wadell... I am not slamming windsurfing. I had years of fun doing it and look back with fondness on it. I am just saying that for down the line wave sailing, it feels a lot more natural (to me and a LOT of other people that used to windsurf) to be on a kite. Come on over to the dark side... You're already packing your car full of crap when you go to the beach, why not pack some more (different) crap into it..

You cannot post new topics in this forumYou cannot reply to topics in this forumYou cannot edit your posts in this forumYou cannot delete your posts in this forumYou cannot vote in polls in this forumYou can attach files in this forumYou can download files in this forum